RAF Coningsby fireman banned after drink-driving in Grainthorpe

Courts

Published:11:55Wednesday 24 February 2016

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An RAF fireman, based at Coningsby, has been told he will not be allowed to drive on the base, even though the law allows him to do so, following his disqualification for driving with excess alcohol in Grainthorpe.

Ryan Joshua Carr, 23, living at Heneage Road in Grimsby, admitted the offence when he appeared at Skegness Magistrates’ Court on February 23.

Nick Todd, prosecuting, said Carr and his girlfriend were seen by an off duty police officer walking through Grainthorpe at 1.45am on February 1 and they told him their car had gone into a ditch.

Because he smelt alcohol on Carr, he arrested him and he gave a breathalyser reading of 48 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35.

Mitigating, Beris Brickles said Carr and his girlfriend had gone out for a meal and a drink around 4pm and returned home about 9pm.

They had then gone out for a drive later but had got lost and when they tried to turn round, had got stuck in the mud.

He said Carr’s girlfriend had not been able to push the car out of the mud while he drove, so they had exchanged places but the car then slid into a dyke.

Asking the magistrates to keep the disqualification period to the minimum, he said that although Carr would be legally allowed to drive on the base, because it was not a public place, the RAF would not allow him to do so until after the end of his disqualification period.

He said he would also suffer disciplinary proceedings from the RAF.

Carr was banned from driving for 12 months but was offered the drink drivers’ rehabilitation course which would reduce the period of the ban by three months.